In my opinion, the "kiss of death" is carrying the moniker of "business development." My first year as a Vice President of Business Development for a sizeable consulting firm. (300 person) was the worst productivity year of my career. Then, a new box of business cards landed on my desk. The company had changed its logo, so everyone was getting new business cards. The job title on my new cards read, "Vice President" (sans "Business Development"). At subsequent conferences and conventions, the dialogues were more substantive, my qualified leads improved, and so did my close rate. I modified my LinkedIn to reflect the abbreviated title on the business card. When prospects don't view you as "the one who's just mining for a sale" they interface with you like an trusted advisor. Perception is reality! Business Development and Sales are atrocious titles if you're attempting to build trust and offer thought leadership. You still have the same goal. Don't care if you subscribed to that or not. It's my journey and now a successful one.
I see what you mean. It is an issue unfortunately that BD has been misused to hide rather aggressive sales tactics. Basically, someone figured out that if you say Business Developer it sounds less sales-y, so they started using it when doing sales. The problem with this is exactly what you say: some people don't take you seriously because of the bad reputation of the job title. Then of course, when you took the title of VP that in itself does help you get a foot in the doors. It's more senior so people tend to look at it differently and with more respect. All being said, I believe business development is not necessarily about the job title, but the type of work you do and how you do it. Personally, it is a very rewarding field to be in 🙂 Thank you for sparking this interesting conversation, @boxofmoles4057
This is a great video and a very worthy mission. I've been in BD for 5 years, and resonated with pretty much everything in the webinar. Great to see more resources in this space!
Hi Kayleigh, thanks for the comment! We're very happy you enjoy the video. Feel free to join our community, so you can meet other BDs from all over the world! chat.whatsapp.com/BPidwLdeRwA5hjJtxqzubr
Hello, I have been working as a software developer/engineer and company co-owner for the last 10 years. I'm nearly 35 years old. I found a business development position in an international company and I applied. They have variety of business area including softwares, banking, human sciences ..etc. My interview was quite positive and I talked about my relations, deals and other activities with the customers. As I said I'm a business co-owner so I've been dealing with customers inluding b2b for more than 10 years. I'm not a pure salesman but it was part of my job because I've been running a start-up company. Is it weird that I've applied for this job ? Is it possible for me to be successful in this area ? Do you know any other people that have engineering background and work in this department ? Does my engineering background helps me with this position ? After I researched for a while, I found out that my job title will be "business development engineer" instead of "business developer" because I have a technical background. Am I correct ? I would really like to hear your thoughts about this. Thank you very much for your videos.
Hi RV! That's great you're an entrepreneur, after all, as an entrepreneur you are already a business developer. If you want to work as a BD, depending on your experience, you can directly apply for companies looking for such role. Highlight the skills you own as an entrepreneur that would be beneficial in BD. For example, sales, communication skills, negotiation, etc. Make sure you find transferable skills and that you communicate them properly to your next employer.
Thank you @wemoo4 ! It's only a matter of practice, keep putting yourself in situations where you can practice your public speaking, and little by little you'll be amazed at what you can do! 💪
Business development is the growth of the business or acheivement in daily life
In my opinion, the "kiss of death" is carrying the moniker of "business development." My first year as a Vice President of Business Development for a sizeable consulting firm. (300 person) was the worst productivity year of my career. Then, a new box of business cards landed on my desk. The company had changed its logo, so everyone was getting new business cards. The job title on my new cards read, "Vice President" (sans "Business Development"). At subsequent conferences and conventions, the dialogues were more substantive, my qualified leads improved, and so did my close rate. I modified my LinkedIn to reflect the abbreviated title on the business card. When prospects don't view you as "the one who's just mining for a sale" they interface with you like an trusted advisor. Perception is reality! Business Development and Sales are atrocious titles if you're attempting to build trust and offer thought leadership. You still have the same goal. Don't care if you subscribed to that or not. It's my journey and now a successful one.
I see what you mean. It is an issue unfortunately that BD has been misused to hide rather aggressive sales tactics. Basically, someone figured out that if you say Business Developer it sounds less sales-y, so they started using it when doing sales. The problem with this is exactly what you say: some people don't take you seriously because of the bad reputation of the job title. Then of course, when you took the title of VP that in itself does help you get a foot in the doors. It's more senior so people tend to look at it differently and with more respect. All being said, I believe business development is not necessarily about the job title, but the type of work you do and how you do it. Personally, it is a very rewarding field to be in 🙂 Thank you for sparking this interesting conversation, @boxofmoles4057
This is a great video and a very worthy mission. I've been in BD for 5 years, and resonated with pretty much everything in the webinar. Great to see more resources in this space!
Hi Kayleigh, thanks for the comment! We're very happy you enjoy the video. Feel free to join our community, so you can meet other BDs from all over the world! chat.whatsapp.com/BPidwLdeRwA5hjJtxqzubr
There is a lot of useful knowledge in this webinar. Thanks for sharing
Thank you, happy you find it helpful!
Great into, much appreciated. Thank you.
Thank you, happy you find it helpful!
Thank you for this rather insightful webinar.
We're happy you enjoyed it Damaris!
Thank you for sharing the knowledge that actually matters.
Thank you Usama!
Highly appreciated your presentation. TKS. 💯
It's our pleasure Quoc!
Very good and informative video. Excellent 💐💐💐
Thank you Rama! Happy you find it useful!
💐💐💐💐💐
Thank you 🌷
Thank you so much for sharing about BD! You really made my day..🥰
We are very happy to hear, Phabrice!!!! 😍
Hi, I've enjoyed the webinar, what about the free course?
Thank you! The free course: that was a contest we did on social media at the time of posting this video (2021), so it's not running at the moment
thank u
We're happy you found it useful!
Hello, I have been working as a software developer/engineer and company co-owner for the last 10 years. I'm nearly 35 years old. I found a business development position in an international company and I applied. They have variety of business area including softwares, banking, human sciences ..etc. My interview was quite positive and I talked about my relations, deals and other activities with the customers. As I said I'm a business co-owner so I've been dealing with customers inluding b2b for more than 10 years. I'm not a pure salesman but it was part of my job because I've been running a start-up company. Is it weird that I've applied for this job ? Is it possible for me to be successful in this area ? Do you know any other people that have engineering background and work in this department ? Does my engineering background helps me with this position ? After I researched for a while, I found out that my job title will be "business development engineer" instead of "business developer" because I have a technical background. Am I correct ? I would really like to hear your thoughts about this. Thank you very much for your videos.
I'm in sales entrepreneur, how do I become a business developer or development
Hi RV! That's great you're an entrepreneur, after all, as an entrepreneur you are already a business developer. If you want to work as a BD, depending on your experience, you can directly apply for companies looking for such role. Highlight the skills you own as an entrepreneur that would be beneficial in BD. For example, sales, communication skills, negotiation, etc. Make sure you find transferable skills and that you communicate them properly to your next employer.
I wish I can speak confidently like you
Thank you @wemoo4 ! It's only a matter of practice, keep putting yourself in situations where you can practice your public speaking, and little by little you'll be amazed at what you can do! 💪
Thank you very much
You are welcome!